In the hours immediately after he was arrested for shooting two Deer Creek Middle School students, suspect Bruco “Bo” Eastwood appeared to be pushing invisible things away from his body, the investigator who interviewed Eastwood said in an arrest affidavit unsealed today.

Jefferson County Sheriff’s Investigator Richard Creswell Gove said that during the interview with Eastwood, the suspect continually made gestures as if he were trying to remove or pick things off his skin.

Asked what was going on, Eastwood told Gove that he was “trying to remove what he called transforming forces from his body,” Gove wrote.

Eastwood admitted that he had been placed on a mental health hold by the Littleton Police Department about 2002. He said he had been placed on the hold because he had told Littleton officers he was hearing voices.

Eastwood told Gove he believed the voices were coming from a Nielsen television box that had been installed in his apartment at the time, according to the affidavit.

Despite having the box removed from his apartment shortly after his placement in the hospital, Eastwood said he continued to hear voices and was still hearing voices on Feb. 23, the day he opened fire on students at Deer Creek.

Eastwood critically wounded 14-year-old Matthew Thieu, who suffered rib and lung injuries in the shooting. He also wounded a second student, 13-year-old Reagan Weber, who was shot in her right arm.

The affidavit was unsealed only after lawyers for 9News and The Denver Post argued before a Jefferson County judge that its contents never should have been sealed in the first place. The judge agreed that the public had a right to the information.

Eastwood said he left his home in Hudson about 11:30 a.m. on Feb. 23 with his father’s 30-06 hunting rifle and a box of 30-06 ammunition. He said that on the way to Deer Creek, he stopped at Dick’s Sporting Goods in Brighton and bought a second box of ammunition.

Once at Deer Creek, said Eastwood, he signed himself in as a visitor, and was provided a visitor’s pass. He then went back to his car, which he had parked in the school parking lot, and there made the final decision to shoot students.

As students began leaving the school at the end of the school day, Eastwood said he approached a group of students and asked them if they liked going to Deer Creek. He then raised his rifle and shot toward a girl as she fled, he said.

After shooting the girl and reloading, he aimed the rifle at a boy who had his back turned and fired striking the child in the back, said Eastwood.

He said as he was attempting to reload, a man in a black sweat suit grabbed him and knocked him to the ground.

During the interview with Gove, Eastwood said he thought he had written down in one or two journals what he planned to do at Deer Creek. He said the journals were on a kitchen table and in the basement at the home in Hudson. But there is nothing in the affidavit about Eastwood’s reasons for the shooting.

Gove wrote that in an interview with Sheriff’s investigator Thomas Acierno, Eastwood’s father, War Eagle Eastwood, said his son had been upset with himself because he had been unable to pass a GED test in order to go into military service.

War Eagle had gone to visit his elderly mother the previous night and had stayed with a friend in Arvada. When he returned home, his son was gone.

War Eagle told Acierno his son had a lot of anger issues and a lot of problems in the past.

The investigator asked War Eagle if his son had access to any weapons, and he said there were only BB guns in the residence except a 30-06 hunting rifle with a scope which was his, not his son’s weapon.

War Eagle said he kept the 30-06 behind the bedroom door in his bedroom. However, when War Eagle and Acierno went to the bedroom, there was a rifle case but the rifle was gone.

The affidavit also contained an interview with Deer Creek math teacher David Benke.

Benke said about 3:07 p.m., he had gotten out to the crosswalk in front of the school, near the school buses, and a couple of minutes later heard what sounded like an M80 firecracker going off in a trashcan.

Benke said he turned toward the front of the school and looked in the direction of the sound. There he saw a man pointing a hunting rifle to the south.

Benke said he saw that it was a bolt action rifle and saw that the shooter was having difficulty chambering another round. Benke said he headed toward the man who pulled the rifle up and fired toward the south.

He said he grabbed the shooter by a sweatshirt the suspect was wearing and with the assistance of math teacher Norm Hanne was able to physically restrain the man until deputies from the Jefferson County Sheriff’s Department arrived.

Eastwood is scheduled to have his preliminary hearing on April 6. Eastwood, 32, faces charges of attempted murder and child abuse resulting in serious bodily injury. Howard Pankratz: 303-954-1939 or hpankratz@denverpost.com

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